Daily Archives: July 20, 2011

Mac OS X v10.7 Lion and Lion Server Review

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There is an excellent review of Apple’s latest OS offerings, OS X Lion and OS X Lion Server on www.thetechscoop.net. The review is fairly comprehensive, hits most of the new features, and is relatively unbiased.

You can read the review here: http://www.thetechscoop.net/2011/07/20/mac-osx-10-lion-complete-review/

Although I have not downloaded and installed OS X Lion or Lion Server, from what I have read, it appears that the Server version is improved in some areas. However, the interface is significantly dumbed down and stripped down to make server administration easier for non-admins.

I mentioned in an earlier post that several key components have been removed, such as, MySQL and Tomcat. It also appears that many of the advanced server controls have either been eliminated from the GUI, or completely eliminated altogether.

These changes are great for server novices who want to try their hat at server admin.

However, I don’t think that this will bode well with many server admins in enterprise and research environments with complicated OS X Server deployments. I think many will choose not to upgrade.

I understand that Apple is going after with masses to capitalize on the overwhelming popularity of iOS. They are building iOS features into the core OS and are bringing server administration within the reaches of the common user.

I just don’t understand why they would choose to eliminate or severely hamstring many of the advanced server controls for more experienced admins. There is no reason that you can’t have both interfaces; Server made easy and Server on steroids. It seems that now we’ll have to hack at the command line more often to maintain the more advanced functionality of OS X Server.

This move along with the recent overhaul of Final Cut Pro X, seems to suggest that Apple has lost touch with it’s core devoted user base, that has historically helped sustain their market share in key markets (creative pros, science, academics) for so many years.

It appears that the mass-consumer market is now driving OS feature development. I can understand that for the core OS, but why for the Server version and Pro Apps?

Apple, please don’t try to turn my Mac into an iPhone, I already have one of those…

Some Significant changes under the hood in OS X v10.7 Lion Server

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For anyone considering upgrading to Lion Server, check out this pdf from Apple titled, “Lion Server Upgrading and Migrating.” There are some significant changes under the hood to some of the core features included in Snow Leopard Server.

http://images.apple.com/macosx/server/docs/Upgrading_and_Migrating_v10.7.pdf

Check out page 5, “What’s new in Lion Server.”

Lion Server has major changes in several key areas:

  • Lateral Migrations: The migration of Lion Server to Lion Server is supported.
  • Server app Services are administrated by the new Server app.
  • PostgreSQL: MySQL is replaced with PostgreSQL.
  • Tomcat: Support for Tomcat is removed from Lion Server.
  • Axis: Support for Axis is removed from Lion Server.
  • Mobile Access: Support for Mobile Access is removed from Lion Server.
  • Print service: Print service is replaced with CUPS.
  • QuickTime Streaming Server (QTSS): Support for QTSS is removed from Lion Server.

As with any server upgrade or migration, make sure there isn’t any mission critical service(s) that will be broken or missing by migrating to Lion Server.

The replacement of MySQL with PostgreSQL and the removal of Tomcat will probably affect a lot of folks.

Text Your Lost Phone

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I recently wrote a post about using the Find My iPhone app to locate and recover my wife’s missing iPhone.

The experience got me thinking…

What can you do if you don’t have an iPhone or other smartphone with location based tracking (GPS, Wifi)?

Well, if your phone supports text messaging, you can simply send your phone a text message with a note to whoever finds it. Give them a phone number you can be reached at and you may be pleasantly surprised with a returned call!

Don’t forget that you can also try the time honored approach of calling your lost phone from another phone. Someone might actually pick up on the other end!